Alex Berenguer Looks Good With 2 Goals, Athletic Bilbao Up Third Place In The Spanish League

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JAKARTA - Alex Berenguer scored two goals for Athletic Bilbao to win 2-1 over his Basque rival, Real Sociedad, at the San Mames Stadium, Bilbao, Saturday local time or Sunday morning WIB. The 28-year-old Spanish striker was able to fill the space left by Inaki Williams who went to the Africa Cup of Nations to defend Ghana. Berenguer's good performance contributed greatly to bringing Athletic up to third place with 41 points in the Spanish League standings. Athletic has the same collection of points as defending Barcelona champions thanks to a goal difference advantage. Barcelona itself, who is currently in fourth place, is in Saudi Arabia to play the Spanish Super Cup final match against leaders Real Madrid. "“ It's still a long way to go, but we're here, although we've seen what happened last year (when Athletic finished eighth). So we have to move calmly,” said Athletic coachtipus Valverde as quoted by AFP. Athletic opened the scoring in the 30th minute when Yuri Muchche moved on the left, and sent the ball into the goal mouth to be struck by Berenguer. Berenguer scored his second before halftime, to be precise in the 42nd minute, when the ball deflected into the path of movement in the penalty box, and he directed it to the bottom corner of Real Sociedad's goal. It was Berenguer's fourth goal in the league this season. "This “Musim I don't play much, I have to take the opportunity when I get it, like today," said Berengguer. Real Sociedad rarely made it difficult for Athletic goalkeeper Unai Simon in the first half, and the hosts took control of the game after halftime. The visitors only got a coverage goal through Mikel Oyarzabal in the 88th minute. The goal had made Athletic feel threatened with the rest of the game, even though they were still able to secure three points.

Betis won 1-0 over Granada Former Real Madrid player Isco scored his only goal in the 14th minute, to give Real Betis a 1-0 win over Granada's bottom side. The win brought Betis up to seventh, with 31 points. In this earlier match, Las Palmas won 3-0 over Villarreal's guest. Roderguez's left hand scored twice as Las Palmas continued their good season with a win over Villarreal who struggled to get out of the bottom. Real Mallorca came from behind to hold Celta Vigo's draw 1-1. Celta took the lead thanks to Iago Aspas' goal in the tenth minute, but Cyle Larun secured a point for the hosts thanks to his goal in the 43rd minute.